1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique of a cleaning blade anti-peeling apparatus which removes toner adhering to an endless transfer unit which transports a transfer material, such as transfer paper after a toner image is transferred to a transfer material and toner remaining in the endless transfer unit which transports the toner image after the toner image is transferred to the transfer material. The invention still relates to a technique of an image forming apparatus equipped with the cleaning blade anti-peeling apparatus made up of an electrophotographic device, such as an electrostatic copier, a printer, and a facsimile, and a cleaning blade anti-peeling method.
2. Related Art
As for an image forming apparatus made up of an electrophotographic device, JP-A-1995-334012 discloses an image forming apparatus which transfers a toner image of a photoconductor to a transfer material, for example transfer paper which is transported by an endless transfer belt which is an endless transfer unit. In the image forming apparatus disclosed in the patent document, toner (toner base particles and additive) adhering to a transfer belt is removed by a cleaning blade which is in contact with the transfer belt after a transfer of a toner image to a transfer material or at the time of occurrence of jam of the transfer material. In such a case, if toner is not supplied to both end portions of the cleaning blade, both end portions of the cleaning blade are likely to peel off.
For such a reason, in the image forming apparatus disclosed in the patent document, the toner image is periodically formed at an area other than an image forming area of the toner image transferred to a typical transfer material to prevent a blade from peeling, and the toner image for blade anti-peeling (blade anti-peeling toner image) is supplied to both ends of the cleaning blade by the transfer belt. Therefore, since toner base particles and additive of the supplied blade anti-peeling toner image functions as lubricant, it is possible to prevent the cleaning blade from peeling.
However, in the image forming apparatus disclosed in the patent document, when toner is supplied to both end portions of the cleaning blade, the blade anti-peeling toner image must be formed. Accordingly, redundant toner which does not contribute to formation of an actual image is needed and thus consumption of the toner increases. Further, there is need for a control process for forming the cleaning blade anti-peeling toner image, so the control of the image formation becomes complex.
Further, the patent document discloses that a pair of specific image forming units is additionally provided in order to form a blade anti-peeling toner image besides an image forming unit for forming an image to a typical transfer material. Accordingly, owing to the additional specific image forming units, the size of the apparatus is increased, resulting in the increase of cost.